A Site Selection Web Exclusive,
July 2016

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A Site Selection Energy Report contribution on designing energy efficiency into buildings by Pattern r+d CEO and Co-founder Sandeep Ahuja was taken down early this year after claims of copyright infringement. Today we repost that story. Asked to describe the situation, Ahuja sent Site Selection the following explanation:

"The excitement started with the article I wrote in The Site Selection Energy Report newsletter. A few weeks after the newsletter was published, I received an e-mail 'cease and desist' letter stating that the content of the article was plagiarized and the content was some type of copyright infringement. Clearly none of the claims in this letter were founded in any reality so I decided to give the person sending the e-mail (let’s call him Tom) a phone call. Right as I was getting ready to do that, I got an e-mail from one of Pattern r+d’s clients stating they got an e-mail stating that the work we do is not original and that they should call Tom at the company he worked for, for the energy efficiency services.

"The next day I got in touch with the CEO of the company (where Tom worked) [and learned that] the company had nothing to do with it, and they apologized for any inconvenience. The CEO of the company then assured me that they would take care of this in-house. We have now used this software methodology on multiple buildings in Atlanta, savings hundreds and thousands of dollars."

Summaries of executive dialogues from the recently convened 2016 Energy Efficiency Global Forum in Washington, D.C., are now available on such topics as buildings of the future; the energy/water nexus; financing mechanisms and carbon scoring.

Switzerland's ABB announced in June it will support the Indonesian state-owned utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) to strengthen reliability and enhance the efficiency of its Java-Bali transmission and distribution networks and meet the growing demand for power in Java, the most populated island on earth. With more than twice the population of the island of Great Britain, Java is home to over 140 million people with a population density of 1,121 per sq. km. (5,548 per sq. mile) and accounts for more than half the Indonesian population.

The $11-million order from PLN to extend existing substations across Indonesia was booked in the first quarter of 2016. Financed by the Asian Development Bank, the project is scheduled to be completed in 2017. PLN is targeting a country electrification rate of over 95 percent by 2020, and has plans to provide an additional 35,000 megawatts (MW) of power supply by 2019. "This project supports our Next Level strategy focus on growing and emerging economies like Indonesia, where we have a long standing presence including manufacturing," said Claudio Facchin, president of ABB's Power Grids division.

150-kV Manyar substation on Java, Indonesia

Photo courtesy of ABB

How much land mass would renewables need to power a nation like the UK? An entire country's worth, said David MacKay, Britain's former chief scientific advisor on climate, who passed away in April at the age of 48. Check out his TED talk on the realities of pursuing sustainable energy ... and why he thought we should pursue it anyway.

Siemens is moving forward with commitments already made to projects in the UK, but has put a hold on anything else until the Brexit process plays out.

The KPMG Global Energy Institute has released its 42-page 2016 Global Energy Conference Recap, featuring insights from such notables as Alan Mullaly, George Will and Paul Begala, as well as industry insiders, who attended the May event in Houston.

Fluor announced July 11th that Tengizchevroil LLP (TCO) has sanctioned KPJV — a joint venture between Fluor, Kazakh Institute of Oil and Gas JSC, Engineering Company KAZGIPRONEFTETRANS LLP, and WorleyParsons — to provide detailed engineering, procurement and construction management support services for the Future Growth Project—Wellhead Pressure Management Project at the Tengiz oil field in western Kazakhstan. The project will use sour gas injection technology to maximize Tengiz production capacity to approximately 39 million tons-of-oil-per-year. During peak construction, the project is expected to employ approximately 20,000 construction workers. TCO forecasts spending approximately $7.8 billion on Kazakhstani goods and services. First oil is planned for 2022.

Tom Rand

Earlier this month in Toronto, Morgan Solar Inc. announced $10 million in funding led by ArcTern Ventures, a venture capital fund developed in partnership with MaRS Discovery District that provides early-stage capital to companies in the cleantech sector. The company, founded in 2007, has developed a concentrating solar technology called the Sun Simba.

“If Canada is going to move the needle on carbon emissions and develop its cleantech industry, then we need to invest in next generation technologies," said Tom Rand (pictured), managing partner of ArcTern Ventures, whom Site Selection interviewed in 2012. "Morgan Solar, which has recruited some of the brightest engineers from across the country, is making a significant impact in the renewable market.”

Natural gas production from Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and North Dakota accounted for 35 percent of total U.S. natural gas production in 2015. "In most cases, production in these states continued to increase in 2015, but at a slower pace than in the previous year," said the Energy Information Administration. "For instance, in Pennsylvania, the second-highest producing state, year-over-year natural gas production growth fell from 2.6 Bcf/d in 2014 to 1.5 Bcf/d in 2015."

Graph courtesy of EIA

The Las Vegas Sun and Fortune have meticulously documented the legal battle between data center firm Switch and state regulators. The company last year was denied permission by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada to break ties with NV Energy and purchase power on the open market, something three big gaming players have been allowed to do, pursuant to a 2001 law giving leeway to big power purchasers. The lawsuit filed by Switch against the PUC and NV Energy seeks $30 million in damages. NV Energy was surprised by the lawsuit, said a spokesperson, and calls the claims baseless. Site Selection reported on Switch's pending unbundling agreement (which calls for First Solar to install 180 MW of solar but for NV Energy to be the middleman) in an interview last November.

Adam BrunsManaging Editor of Site Selection magazine

Adam Bruns has served as managing editor of Site Selection magazine since February 2002. In the course of reporting hundreds of stories for Site Selection, Adam has visited companies and communities around the globe. A St. Louis native who grew up in the Kansas City suburbs, Adam is a 1986 alumnus of Knox College, and resided in Chicago; Midcoast Maine; Savannah, Georgia; and Lexington, Kentucky, before settling in the Greater Atlanta community of Peachtree Corners, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

The Site Selection Energy Report features exclusive and in-depth reporting and analysis on the most important energy projects and energy policy issues impacting the world of manufacturing and industrial real estate. Topics covered include oil and gas projects, investments into alternative energy installations and R&D, tax credits and financing, electric utility issues and much more.